Former Italian Prime Minister and leader of the "Forward, Italy!" party, which is part of the current government coalition, Silvio Berlusconi believes that Ukraine can enter into negotiations with Russia if they stop helping it with weapons and offer only reconstruction assistance instead.
As La Repubblica reports, Berlusconi said this in an interview with Italian journalist Bruno Vespi.
"(Negotiations between Ukraine and the Russian Federation) are possible only if at some point Ukraine realizes that it can no longer count on weapons and aid, and if, in return, the West promises to provide it with hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild war-torn cities. In this case, Zelenskiy may will agree to sit down at the negotiating table," the politician said.
In response to Vespi's objection that Russia should withdraw its troops from the territory of Ukraine before the negotiations, Berlusconi said that the issue of Crimea's accession to the Russian Federation would not be discussed, but that a new referendum should be held in Donbas under the control of the West.
In addition, the leader of "Forward, Italy!" expressed his belief that Putin is a "man of the world". At the same time, he admits that he tried to call him twice unsuccessfully at the beginning of the war and did not make such attempts again after that.
The leader of one of the centrist opposition parties "Diya!" has already responded to the statements of the ex-Prime Minister of Italy. Carlo Calenda said that "Berlusconi continues to conduct propaganda in favor of Putin, regardless of the consequences."
This is not the first scandalous statement by the leader of "Forward, Italy!", dedicated to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking on Rai TV channel on the eve of the parliamentary elections, Berlusconi, known for his friendship with the President of the Russian Federation, said that "Putin was pushed by the Russian people, the party, his ministers" to war against Ukraine, and the purpose of the invasion was supposedly to create a government of "decent people" in Kyiv.